1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to magazines for belt-shaped photosensitive materials (hereinafter referred to as "photosensitive material magazines", when applicable), and more particularly to a photosensitive material magazine for printing, copying and so forth.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Presently, there are available a variety of photosensitive material magazines of different configuration for holding a relatively wide, belt-shaped photosensitive material used for printing, copying and so forth. One example of these photosensitive material magazines is shown in FIG. 3 (cf. Japanese patent application publication No. 36736/1984 for instance). The magazine comprises: a four sided prism-shaped hollow body 1 which has a square cross-section; and two end caps 4 fitted on both ends of the body 1. A roll of photosensitive material 3 is held in the casing formed by the hollow body 1 and the end caps 4 so that it is shielded from exposure to light. The photosensitive material 3 is pulled out through a slot 2 having a light shielding means, and which is formed in one of the sides of the hollow body 1 so that it extends along the axis of a winding core 5 of the roll of photosensitive material 3 in the magazine.
The material of the hollow body 1 is, for instance, corrugated fiberboard, cardboard or plastic material. The two caps 4 which seal closed both ends of the hollow body 1 have grooves which engage with the edges of the ends of the hollow body 1 so that the photosensitive material is shielded from light, and also have bearings for supporting the rotary shaft of the winding core 5 of the roll of photosensitive material. As a result, the magazine is relatively intricate in configuration, and must have high rigidity and accurate dimensions. Therefore, the magazine is generally made of plastic material.
The roll of photosensitive material 3 is inserted in the magazine with the front end portion pulled out of the magazine slightly through the slot 2. The front end portion thus pulled out is fastened to the body 1 of the magazine, for instance, with pieces of adhesive tape 6 so that it may not be rewound back into the magazine.
When the magazine is loaded in the magazine loading section of an image forming device or the like, the adhesive tapes 6 are removed from the front end portion of the photosensitive material, and then the front end portion is clamped, for instance, by the conveying nip rollers of the image forming device, so that the photosensitive material may be pulled out.
In the conventional photosensitive material magazine, as is apparent from FIG. 3, the edge of the slot 2 is substantially at right angles to the surface of the magazine to which the front end portion is taped. Therefore, the photosensitive material 3 is bent by the edge of the slot 2 while it is being stored or transported, i.e., before it is actually used. Because a portion of the photosensitive material 3 is bent, the remaining photosensitive material 3 may not be clamped by the conveying nip rollers; that is, sometimes it cannot be satisfactorily pulled out of the magazine. Accordingly, it is necessary to cut away the bent portion from the photosensitive material before the magazine is loaded in the magazine loading section. After the bent part has been cut away, it is necessary to pull out the photosensitive material by a predetermined length. This process is uneconomical, and troublesome in operation.